COMIC LEGEND:

DC rejected a Batman story from Jim Steranko

STATUS:

Appears to be True

Jim Steranko is one of the all-time great comic book creators. During a relatively brief period at Marvel Comics in the late 1960s, he left a tremendous mark on the industry with his work on Nick Fury and Captain America. From a design standard and from a story perspective, Steranko's work was light years ahead of most of the industry.

However, it turns out that Steranko was perhaps TOO out there for DC at the time!

From a 1979 issue of The Comic Reader, there was a transcription of Steranko answering questions at a comic book convention.

When he was asked about what characters he never got a chance to do that he would like to work on, Steranko replied:

The Batman. I submitted a plot when Carmine Infantino was the publisher at DC and it was rejected. My Batman would be different from everything that's come before, but it probably wouldn't fit DC's style. It would only take me one story to do the ultimate Batman. I haven't submitted it to DC since Jenette Kahn became publisher because they can't afford my price.

Obviously, that sort of statement requires you to take so much of it with a grain of salt that that grain of salt would look to be gigantic, but the basic gist of it is likely fair enough. Steranko says that he pitched Infantino on a Batman comic book story and he was turned down. That doesn't seem hard to believe.

In recent years, Steranko has done some awesome Batman drawings, including one for one of the variant covers for the upcoming Detective Comics #1000!